European educational programmes as a bridge over troubled European-Israeli water

EU-Israeli trade relations appear to be comprehensive and close.¹ Yet these developed relations should not conceal the true colours of European-Israeli socio-political relations, relations that are characterized too often by ignorance, stereotyping, mistrust, and tension.² This state of affairs adversely affects the ability of both the European Union (EU) and the State of Israel to fully realize the enormous potential of their relations.³ This article focuses, in abstracto and in concreto, on the means by which higher educational cooperation can alleviate that state of affairs to a certain extent, analysed through an International Relations (IR) perspective, drawing on the experience gained in intra-Community and inter-Community contexts. This article, however, also places emphasis on the limitations inherent in such cooperation in terms of forging regional, European-Israel affinity, limitations that are derived, inter alia, from the somewhat heterogeneous nature of the European higher education space.